Sur-prise sur-prise, Gomer: Deloitte wins IT contract after spending year consulting with state on consolidation plan

As anticipated, Deloitte Consulting, which met regularly with state officials over the past year to assist in planning for a comprehensive consolidation of information technology (IT) services for the Division of Administration, was named winner of the contract for “Information Technology Planning and Management Support Services,” according to an email announcement by the Division of Administration (DOA) that went out to IT employees Thursday morning.

The announcement, which did not mention a contract amount, came only hours after LouisianaVoice indicated that Deloitte had the inside track for the contract on the strength of its working with state officials in the planning of a request for proposals (RFP) for the work.

The email said that the evaluation of proposals was complete and that work under the contract is slated to begin on Monday, September 16.

The announcement cited five other states with full IT consolidation. These included Michigan, Utah, Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico. It also listed eight other states with limited IT consolidation: Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey and North Carolina.

The email, however, made no mention of the massive cost overruns experienced by several states in attempts at computer conversion and IT consolidation, including North Carolina, one of those put forward by the administration as an example:

North Carolina, one of the states cited as a model by the email has seen costs of a contract to modernize only one system, one to process the state’s Medicaid payments, go from the original $265 million to nearly $900 million;

California pulled the plug on its court computer system that was to connect all 58 of the state’s counties when the price tag leapt from $260 million to more than $500 million—with only seven courts using the system before the project was terminated.

Tennessee experienced repeated delays, missed deadlines and cost overruns and finally stopped work after seven years of development of its Vision Integration Platform (VIP). As is becoming more and more common with bad news, the announcement came late on a Friday in order to have minimal political impact. Tennessee also experienced problems with its much ballyhooed IT state projects that affected the Department of Children’s Services, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the state’s Project Edison payroll system. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, by the way, announced last April that all of the state’s 1,600 information technology workers would be required to reapply for their jobs.

A consolidated service and network support project was supposed to consolidate IT services for 20 state agencies in Wisconsin at a cost of $12.8 million but cost overruns ran the price to more than $200 million, wiping out anticipated savings.

In Virginia a 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with Northrop Grumman to consolidate the state’s computer systems has been an ongoing nightmare of cost overruns and missed deadlines

It also said the project’s approach strategies would include capitalizing on vendor experience in other states, phased approach to consolidation of staff, agency involvement in the process and effective communication with agency staff regarding consolidation goals.

Now that Deloitte has been chosen for the contract, the next steps, according to the DOA announcement will be the selection of a project team, education of the vendor on Louisiana’s IT infrastructure and operations, survey and assessment, development of a plan of operational changes, and the request of software and hardware inventory.

Nothing was mentioned in the approach strategies about impending layoffs of state employees but that is a near certainty given the track record of other privatization/consolidation schemes rolled out by the administration.

And while DOA assures us that 36 states were reviewed in reaching the decision to consolidate the state’s IT services, one has to wonder if any time was spent examining other states in an effort to determine the cause of massive cost overruns, delays and missed deadlines.

Or is this simply yet another program fronted by Gov. Bobby Jindal but being pushed by the American Legislative Exchange Council?

This is not to say IT consolidation is the wrong thing but with the state’s budget already in the tank, it seems that a more open discussion, more sunshine as it were, would be appropriate before plunging into something that could ultimately break the bank—and still leave us with an inoperative system.

10 Responses

There IS a rule in Louisiana procurement regs that prohibits an entity that advises staff, assists in creating the specifications and/or creating an RFP, from bidding on and receiving the contract resulting from that RFP. Not that anyone is playing by the rules or abiding by the LAWS during the oh-so-ethical Jindal era. We can’t expect oversight by the Office of Contractual Review, so where are the legislature, the legislative auditor, the attorney general and the feds while all this shameless, outright fraud is going down? Can we say CNSI?

Tom, you deserve a medal for your work – without you we would be completely in the dark about the massive corruption of this administration and their blatant sell-off of our state. Note to legislators and the civil service commission – your complicity will not be forgotten.

Wonder how long it will take for this Deloitte company to sell off to another company who will probably contract with another company to try to fulfill their obligation to the State. Everything is clear as mud and following the money will be a chore that never ends and the costs will continue to go up!!! For some reason this administration can neither see the handwriting on the wall nor will they take responsibility which they have refused to do from the beginning. Wave bye to the money, it will leave Louisiana as fast as this company came to raid, rape and destroy Louisiana.

They may not DO anything immediately or ever, but they need to know the information on this blog is widely circulated, that many citizens, i.e. voters are not apathetic, as they would hope, but informed, active and looking to hold someone accountable.

Tom, one of your very best pieces! These things are VERY hard to do and VERY expensive. Our state has a structural budget deficit of at least $500 million AND an almost totally unaddressed $19 BILLION unfunded accrued retirement liability, $12 BILLION in highway repair backlog, and hundreds of millions in other pent up demands due to ignoring clear state needs for years. IF this IT consolidation EVER actually saves money you and I and a lot of other people will no longer be above ground when it does.

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